New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-03-20
PPFE RIM FOR SUNDAY.

seldom has mOlc cS'iIcdhN h'P""'"' IA OP
sition been made than is contained in the DILL
said to be favored by Mayor Hewitt, providing
for the virtual opening of all the rm-shops
Of Ncw-Yorix on Sundays. Ostenslbly INC Dill
excludes hard liquors, but when ale, wine and
lccr can bc freely sold, experience shows
that the prohibition of whiskcy Is futile.
1t is true That the present law has not
been faithfully administered. Perhaps in
a city so dominated by the saloon infiu-
cnce in politics nothing better could have
been expected But the law has been obcyed
sufficiently to emphasize its practical utility
and 70 show the extent Of the benefaction TO
public morals which the absolute closing of all
the lquor-shops would constitute. Even the
partial application of its provisions has, as Dhc
police would doubtless testify, made a marked
difference IN tho amount Of lawlessncss On
Sunday. There can, in fact, be no question
that the operation of the law has been salutary,
and that If the police and the lower courts did
their duty it could DO made thoroughly efIcc-
tive. In the face of these facts 1T Is now
ooolly proposed to remove every restraint upon
Sunday drunkenness and to give the drunkard-
makers full opportunity to ply their trade on
the one day when the great working population
CT Ncw-Yorl has its time on its hands. and Is
therefore most exposed to temptation.
1t is a proposition not less outrageous than
audacious. 1t can proceed only from the
liquor sellers themselves, and to acccde TO it
would lie to acknowledge without further cir
cumlocution the despotic control exercised by
The saloons over the morals and manners OF
this metropolis. The closing Of these places
on Sunday is in truth not to he considered in
the light of concession to the decency and
piety of rhc community. but rather as matter
of police regulation prompted by the most
practical considerations among which economy
figures conspcuousy Every one knows that
when rum is free on Sunday an abnormal
amount of turbulence cnsues. Thousands Of
IDLE people resort to TIE saloons to pass away
time. Thousands are scduced from hcalthful
and peaceful, recrations by the opportunity to
drink. Quarelling, fighting, destruction Of
property, injury TO life and limb increased
work for the police and fr the police courts,
increased expenses thrown upon whole series
Of public institutions, result from the general
Indulgence. Beyond these direct consequences
must also be counted the indirect ones, which
include loss Of Mondays work for numbers,
and the resulting dcpnv alton of wages for
them, and coincdcnt loss of time, which also
is capital, for their employers. We have said
nothing Of the deeper injuries inflicted on many
homes Of the blutalihcs ohscenities crueldes,
outrages, hdeous lessons conveyed to the
young, all flowing from the same SundGy
operation of the saloons.
The kind of people who have the harlihood
to demand that the rum-shops he opened on
l. L. cN1 xr-ith hN
worshippers Of God; but they exhibit Az
extraordinary audacity when they propose In
effect that tho City Of New.Yo shall be given
over on the rest day to the worship of the
Devil. The people of this city are much too
tolerant and enduring. They have borne far
more from the liquor-sellcrs than they were
justified in bearing but their patience is not
inexhausnble. as the demand for the
passage of the Crosby High-Liccnsc
hill proves Yet it Is while that
measure is pending that the representatives
CT over ten thousand saloons impudcnty ad-
vance tins demand for larger concession than
the laxcst pubic opinion has reached; for The
concession of Free Rum on Sunday. 1t is too
much, and the men who arc now playing with
fire will assuredly burn their fingers If they do
not stop With all It's liberation Newly DIRK
can be outraged into an anger which once
kindled will blaze until the offending cause has
been destroyed. Religious feeling may he en-
! fccbled hut common sense remains, and enough
sense of dccency and propricty TO insure the
lvclicst resentment of the rowdy bar-room
lcgislat ion said TO be Endorsed by our model
Mayor Long impunity has no doubt hardened
The saloon-kcepcrs and liquor-mcn generally.
but New York is not yet prepared to yield
everything to their brutal insstcncc, and this
attempt to complete the degradation of the
Sunday and at the same time TO spread fresh
Generalization among the masses, all at the
expense of whatever is worth preserving and
protecting in the community will have TO be
abandoned The liquor interest may as well
understand first and last that Ncw-York will
not tolerate free rum on Sunday.